Monday 9th September

Long time followers of this blog (you have both my gratitude and sympathy) will know that we have been here before, not 44 years ago this time like Narbonne Plage, but only six years ago. We dashed across Italy from Croatia to meet up with Wendy’s cousin Bethan and her husband Huw. Together we spent a memorable day in Arles. It was the visit that inspired the post card collection that adorns the wall in our motorhome. This time we have a stricter challenge; to show Andy and Lesley the best bits of Arles in an afternoon. We arrived at Camping Cité, a modest but green and leafy town site, in time for a late lunch and we were off for a half hour walk to where all the action is.

If you have never been to Arles, you must go and perhaps this entry in the endless drivel I have written will help you plan your visit?

From the campsite it was a 15-minute walk to the Luma Tower, a stunning silver clad building designed by Frank Gehry who also designed the Guggenheim Museum. The literally multi-faceted building sparkled in the sunlight. The tower is the centrepiece of what looks to be an arts complex, built on the site of old workshops. If you have time, there are gardens you can wander through too.

Another 15 minutes and we arrived at the Roman Theatre. The romans arrived in Provence in 121BCE, its name comes from the fact that it was the first province of the Roman Empire, their first territory the other side of the Alps. They stayed for around 500 years and have left plenty of reminders around the place, especially in Arles. The Teatro was a gift to Arles from Caesar Augustus for staying loyal to him in a spat he had with Marseilles. Despite years of neglect and the locals using it as a builders’ merchants it is still a very impressive building where you can imagine crowd of toga clad theatre goers applauding Seneca’s latest play. UNESCO funding has brought the theatre back into use for plays and concerts.

When you buy your ticket for the Teatro use the special offer and buy the combined ticket for the Amphitheatre too, because that’s where we are going next, its just around the corner. The amphitheatre is stunning, perhaps not as good as the Coliseum or the one in Pula in Croatia, but still very evocative of all those sword and sandal films, with gladiators, Christians and lions, and that sort of thing. (The sand used in the amphitheatre to cover up the blood and the gore, gave amphitheatres the nickname arena, from the latin for sand.) By the Middle Ages, there was a village built inside the Arena, complete with a church and a beefed-up defensive wall. Outside the Amphitheater today are plenty of cafés to have a drink while you are looking after the dogs who are not allowed in.

Now we stroll east along the Rue des Arènes to the Place du Forum. As the name suggests it was the site of the old roman forum, of which nothing remains, though underneath the square are some caves or catacombs that are the remains of the Greek settlement that was here before the Romans, how cool is that? The main reason for stopping here though is because it is here that Van Gogh painted “The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum at Night”. Not a very snappy title but a lovely picture (see below). The café is still there, but sadly for Andy and Lesley it and all the other cafés in the square were closed. We had arrived in the low season twilight zone between lunchtime opening and evening opening.

Next stop was the quayside and across the Trinquetaille Bridge to the left bank of the Grand Rhône to get a good view of the buildings along the riverside (it’s the picture on the blog’s homepage).

Back across the river to the left bank, and only stopping to quench our thirst in the Place du President Wilson where we found the only bar in town that was open before 7pm, we arrived in the Place de la République. This the city square of all city squares! In the centre is a beautiful fountain and flanked by the 17th century handsome Town Hall and the imposing edifice of the church of Saint Trophime which is apparently considered to by a masterpiece of Provençal Romanesque. More importantly it has an ice cream shop, selling artisanal glacés.

Now all we had to do was walk past the Teatro and we were. Back on the road to our campsite. We took a quick diversion through the grounds of the Gehry tower to let the dogs off their leads and we were back in time for tea (or dinner, or supper, depending on where you are reading this!)

There you go, Arles in a nutshell. If you have a bit more time to spend in the city, there is plenty more Van Gogh stuff to see too.

Oh, and by the way! Do you remember yesterday’s teaser about the largest metropolitan commune in France? You guessed it, it is Arles!